17 May 2016

1940's pyjama's

Pattern: Vera Venus/Smooth Sailing hackTotal cost: about 20€?A while ago I wanted to make some pyjama's to wear at a 1940's re-enactment event. It seems silly, but when I'm at a 1940's re-enactment event I don't want to wear any modern clothes. I try to leave all of them at home and arrive already dressed 40's style at such an event.One of the things I needed to complete my 1940's wardrobe was a pyjama or nightgown. Luckily, Vera Venus has a beautiful free pattern online, you can find it here. When I saw that pattern I knew this would be perfect for my re-enactment event pyjama. It had to be warm enough for the night (it can be very cold at re-enactment events) and decent enough to wear in front of strangers when going to the bathroom in the morning. My inspiration for these pyjama's:

I followed Vera Venus' instructions for the top and used the French Knickers pattern for the bottom. And in about a week I had a lovely pyjama. But... after wearing it to an event I noticed the top was so difficult to remove! The top fit me perfectly, but had two problems:1. The underbust seam was a bit too high, without wearing a bra the seam would be right on top of my breasts. Uncomfortable and looking bad.2. The top fit so snugly I could only remove it by wriggling my shoulders in a certain way. I do know I have a light version of Hypermobility , but this was just an insane way of removing clothing! And presented a problem when trying to dress quickly in a shared sleeping accommodation. I don't like having my boobs naked while getting my head and arms stuck trying to get my top off!So after the first event wearing this pyjama the Vera Venus style, I tried to come up with a solution. I had limited fabric left. After a search online at the usual fabric webshops I found this fabric and bought another metre, yay! It seems to be a flannel of the autumn/winter collection of Nooteboom Textiles.The solution to my problem would be a buttonclosure. With the top as it was, it wouldn't work, it would be fiddly to try and make a button closure. And I didn't like the sleeves anyway.So in the end I used the Smooth Sailing pattern I've used before, here.It was tricky trying to fit all the pattern pieces on the fabric I had left. It wouldn't work with the bottom part. So I used the bias bottom part from the Vera Venus top I made and used the Smooth Sailing pattern for the upper part.The result: